[Westheim]

We called up Bill Baker, who had started some AAA games, allowing only single runs in the last three, outfielder Sherwood Henderson, and infielder Alberto Colón. I also considered calling up reliever Jason White, a righty with murder stuff but little else, but eventually didn’t. Same thing for Grant “Demon” West, who was killing everything with bats at AAA. I did consider him for the 1981 roster, though. I also did not call up 1B Matt Workman, who had busted his knee and was out until next summer.

Raccoons (57-73) @ Knights (62-67)

Game 1. Logan Evans was awful, the rest of the team wasn’t any better and the Raccoons lost 7-2 on a grand total of four hits. Ben Cox hit his first homer of the season, but the Knights bashed two and whacked Evans around for four runs in the first three innings alone.

The Raccoons out-hit the Knights 12-6 in game 2. Horrible defense with two throwing errors (Ocasio, Cook) and five walks helped to plate eight runs for the Knights and the Raccoons lost 8-4.

The Knights completed the complete destruction of the Raccoons with an 11-6 victory in the last game. Even worse for the Raccoons was an injury to starter Jorge Romero, who left in the first inning with a potentially season-ending injury. Hoyt Cook went down with an oblique strain as well and was listed DTD for a few days. The Raccoons had opened the game in the first with a grand slam by Ben Simon, but that quickly was forgotten in one of the most horrible series ever.

Raccoons (57-76) @ Titans (68-66)

With the bullpen torn up badly against the Knights, Christopher Powell stepped in and was at his finest to start the 4-game series against the Titans. Dimian Barrios had a hit to left off Powell in the fourth – that was it, as Powell 1-hit the Titans in a 3-0 win with solo homers by Simon and Hall. Powell had his 10th win of the season and needed only 93 pitches to get there.

Gary Simmons had a rough first inning with two runs in, but eventually settled in and went seven frames with three runs allowed. The Raccoons had already turned it by then against Titans starter Du Tong, who was chased when Hermundo and Hall homered back to back in the fifth. Raccoons won 9-4. Ben Cox was 3-4 with 3 RBI.

Horrible news to follow: Jorge Romero was diagnosed with a torn labrum and was out for nine months at least, which translated to at least half of the 1981 season. It hardly could have come more horrible for the Raccoons, losing their #1 starter for like forever. His season ended 12-11 with a 3.10 ERA. Romero had already missed most of the ’79 season on the DL, then with a partially torn labrum.

Romero was the fifth starter in the Raccoons system going down for the rest of the season, and the fourth to miss part or all of 1981 due to injury. The others were all minor leaguers, although Ivan Diaz was among them, whom we had acquired for Brett Justice. I don’t know how to pluck that hole in my rotation, not now, neither next year.

There were two games left against the Titans. Game 3 was poor on offense. Logan Evans left 2-1 behind and the Raccoons got down to the wire, loading the bases with one out in the top 9th. Daniel Hall scorched one right into the pitcher’s glove. Sánz was up, he had gone 0-4 with 3 K’s. He would not dare… Sánz sent one to left and scored the tying run, but that was it. The game went to extra innings, where the Raccoons lost in the 13th with Carlos Moran on the mound on two infield singles sandwiching a walk – poor defense and poor pitching make poor results. Add poor offense to that: Raccoons K’ed 16 times in the game.

We took the last game, 4-0, but that hardly describes the awful pitching with eight walks dished out to the Titans (and only four hits!). Pedro Sánz went 4-5.

Raccoons (60-77) vs. Crusaders (67-69)

I made a move that came close to forfeiting game 1 to the Crusaders: I started Bill Baker and his 9.82 ERA. He had been good in a few AAA starts, so why not? He pitched to one batter, Hector Atilano, who grounded out, then left with rotator cuff tenditis. Moran gave up two runs that lost the game (2-0 it remained), while the Raccoons had one lonely hit the whole game (Bocci was the culprit to ruin the no-no). Rich Hughes pitched 4.1 perfect innings in long relief, then hurt his elbow and would be out for a year.

(bangs head against the wall repeatedly)

Hughes had appeared in 20 games for the Raccoons, with a 1-0 record, 0.89 ERA, and 13 K’s. With him and Baker, both lefties from the pen were down, and I had to scramble (once more). I brought up Bojorquez (because why not, he’s a pathetic loser, but do I give a crap?) and then I also called up probably the biggest talent in the system: AAA closer Grant “Demon” West. I would have loved to wait till next year, but I was running out of arms at frightening speed (all over the system). Both moves provided no answer to who’d start in Romero’s spot next time around.

Two more against a team, that’s scored 194 more runs than the Raccoons. Let me count what we lost in there. Stephano Bocci was hit in the knee by a pitch from Tom Moulds and was out for about a week. The A-hole Moulds also plunked Daniel Hall and Pedro Sánz during the game, and my pitchers new, what to do and drilled him twice, but sadly didn’t get his A-head knocked off. We also lost that game, 7-6, after scoring four in the bottom 9th to no avail. At least Grant West pitched a scoreless debut. We also lost the last game, 9-2. Gary Simmons was torched for three home runs and Bojorquez for another one. Awful.

We called up C Angel Ramirez from AAA, since he was already on the 40-man roster, to replace Bocci for the week. Of course he would only play backup to Lawson, who was hitting quite well at the moment.

Raccoons (60-80)@ Loggers (63-77)

Last chance to save some dignity. The series opened with Logan Evans being highly erratic, walking four and being pulled after surrendering a 3-run bomb to Marvin Mills in the fifth. The Raccoons lost 5-2, all runs on Evans.

We made a change to the lineup, removing Costa, moving Simon to 2B, Hermundo to SS, and inserting Green, who had raised his average to .230 in the last weeks after being horrible all summer.

Game 2 was more of the same. Ocasio was awful, the Raccoons lost 5-2, and all runs were on the starter. Dignity was long gone by now. Christopher Powell gave up seven hits over seven frames in the last game, but no runs. The pen didn’t crumble either, for once, but the Raccoons never scored in nine innings and had only two hits. Loggers starter John Douglas had even a 1-hitter going, but walked eight and didn’t make it through. The game went to the tenth and the Raccoons broke through with a bases-clearing double by Pedro Hermundo. The Raccoons scored five and won 5-0 after a clean bottom 10th by Moran.

Raccoons (61-82) vs. Titans (72-72)

The last home stint begins for this season. Up were the low-scoring Titans. Hall hit a solo dinger in the fourth, but Simmons, who whiffed nine, gave it back in the fifth. The Raccoons had countless chances to score, but clutch hitting was not in their dictionary. The bags were full with one out in the ninth, and they didn’t score. Runners were in scoring position in the 10th and 11th and they didn’t score. They finally walked off 2-1 in the 13th on an error, a walk, and a scratch single by Johnston.

Logan Evans in game 2 sucked big time again, allowing six runs in 4.1 innings. The lame offense failed to pick that up, and the Raccoons lost 6-3. Game 3: the Raccoons led 2-1 after the first due to a Hall home run. Maybe, one day, Daniel Hall *will* become something remotely resembling a good ballplayer.

There was no hope for something similar happening to Roman Ocasio. He surrendered seven runs in 1.1 innings and was thrown out of the stadium (from the upper deck of course). The inning further escalated with Bill Craig, who walked in two. Titans won, 11-4. Bocci was 4-5, Grant West went 4.1 frames in long relief surrendering one run, the rest of the team was – well, I’m sure there are some language rules here that prevent me from giving a proper description.

In other news:
September 6 – No-hitter! Bill Warren of the Milwaukee Loggers shut down the Indianapolis Indians in a 1-0 win, yielding five walks, but no hits. It is the third no-hitter in ABL history, and the first in over three years. All of them have been done by CL North teams, and both the Loggers and Indians were already involved in one of the other two. The Indians’ Salah Brunet no-hit the Condors in 1977, and in the same year the Loggers were silenced by the Raccoons’ Juan Berrios.
September 6 – Pat Graham goes 0-4 as the Stars beat his Wolves 6-1, ending a 24-game hitting streak.
September 10 – For the Scorpions’ Beau Horn, a injury-plagued season comes to an end with a back muscle strain, sidelining him for up to a month.
September 15 – The Crusaders trade SS Joe Helms to the Cyclones for 3B Cecil Ward. How none of those two was picked off waivers, remains a mystery in this past-deadline trade.
September 17 – Salem outfielder Ryan Childress announces his retirement from post-concussion syndrome. The 33 year old had hit 39 homers with 269 RBI in 471 career games.
September 17 – The Warriors’ Chris Lynch falls a double short of the cycle in a 17-inning meatgrinder against the Scorpions, which his team also loses, 8-7.

The home stint continues against the Falcons and Bayhawks. This would probably give another beating, before we would get rounded up on the road to end the season with three more series in Vancouver, Indianapolis, and New York. Get that sh[bleep]y season over with, and then head for the next sh[bleep]y season.

Buffaloes on their way to their first division title, Indians M# is seven. Thunder up by 3 over the Falcons, but the Falcons will close now since they’re playing the Raccoons.

Frustration.